Voting for who will be the next leader of the Conservative party and prime minister has begun in earnest today as Tory MPs take to the ballot box.
The first round election voting process was officially opened at 11am today (5) with voting ending at 6pm later today by when 330 Conservative MPs will have cast their vote for one of the five candidates standing for the leadership. The results are expected to be announced at around 7pm today (5). After which the candidate with the least amount of votes will be eliminated from contest.
Current home secretary Theresa May has emerged as a clear front runner and bookies favourite to be next Tory leader and does have backing of many MPs. Andrea Leadsom has moved out of the pack to be considered May’s leading rival in the contest. Yesterday (4) Leadsom was given the backing of Boris Johnson, who was once seen as leading contender to replace David Cameron. Johnson said that Leadsom had “the zap, the drive, and the determination” to be prime minister and praised her trustworthiness.
Out of the five standing candidates of Theresa May, Andrea Leadsom, Michael Gove, Stephen Crabb and Liam Fox, it is Fox who is expected to be first casualty in the leadership race later today.
